The datasets used in this project are a dataset of fires from MTBS and datasets of AQI from 2017 to 2021 from CBSA. The fires dataset contains information about 2,064 wildfires from 2017 to 2021. The AQI dataset has 97,243 AQI observations of states in the U.S. from 2017 to 2021. The average national AQIs for every year are 39.46, 38.87, 37.32, 36.74, 39.36, ordered from 2017 to 2021. The locations with the worst AQI every year were Country Of Mexico, Country Of Mexico, New Mexico, Oregon, South Dakota, ordered from 2017 to 2021. As a quick test to see if wildfires could be correlated with AQI, the highest AQI in Washington in 2021 was on 2021-08-13. The ignition day of the largest wildfire in Washington in 2021, on the other hand, was on 2021-07-07. It’s unknown how long the wildfire lasted with this dataset, but a one month difference should mean that there is a possibility that that wildfire increased the maximum AQI in Washington.
| State_Abbr | State | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | Total_Burned |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CA | California | 1296654 | 1579806 | 255278 | 4567669 | 262862 | 7962269 |
| AK | Alaska | 704330 | 396222 | 2522419 | 176796 | 0 | 3799767 |
| OR | Oregon | 724833 | 778701 | 61223 | 1065413 | 0 | 2630170 |
| NV | Nevada | 1099528 | 932239 | 72780 | 259408 | 48828 | 2412783 |
| AZ | Arizona | 379404 | 141978 | 348403 | 940504 | 3508 | 1813797 |
| ID | Idaho | 664274 | 556852 | 263978 | 291052 | 18276 | 1794432 |
| WA | Washington | 400869 | 404137 | 147970 | 764346 | 11622 | 1728944 |
| MT | Montana | 1183049 | 89883 | 43309 | 305524 | 0 | 1621765 |
| CO | Colorado | 97261 | 424061 | 32704 | 648440 | 0 | 1202466 |
| UT | Utah | 228564 | 492880 | 79806 | 312244 | 9705 | 1123199 |
| TX | Texas | 503074 | 310529 | 95958 | 146480 | 0 | 1056041 |
| KS | Kansas | 700112 | 42629 | 20713 | 22773 | 0 | 786227 |
| OK | Oklahoma | 245166 | 475227 | 21211 | 30213 | 0 | 771817 |
| WY | Wyoming | 113701 | 216635 | 34040 | 262558 | 0 | 626934 |
| NM | New Mexico | 120515 | 313923 | 66652 | 106910 | 0 | 608000 |
| FL | Florida | 189940 | 145099 | 22965 | 54296 | 49629 | 461929 |
| GA | Georgia | 166737 | 738 | 2277 | 0 | 771 | 170523 |
| SD | South Dakota | 65062 | 0 | 0 | 9083 | 0 | 74145 |
| HI | Hawaii | 1591 | 15617 | 13445 | 0 | 0 | 30653 |
| MS | Mississippi | 10617 | 3936 | 0 | 10698 | 0 | 25251 |
| MN | Minnesota | 0 | 17233 | 1293 | 1468 | 0 | 19994 |
| LA | Louisiana | 503 | 2348 | 13717 | 1491 | 0 | 18059 |
| NC | North Carolina | 8380 | 2400 | 0 | 2076 | 4533 | 17389 |
| NE | Nebraska | 0 | 0 | 7587 | 9207 | 0 | 16794 |
| NJ | New Jersey | 4189 | 827 | 8182 | 2952 | 0 | 16150 |
| SC | South Carolina | 3025 | 3093 | 3406 | 0 | 1258 | 10782 |
| MO | Missouri | 2234 | 3955 | 3276 | 1137 | 0 | 10602 |
| KY | Kentucky | 2199 | 541 | 1900 | 0 | 3654 | 8294 |
| MD | Maryland | 7743 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7743 |
| AR | Arkansas | 4543 | 2410 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 6953 |
| VA | Virginia | 2309 | 2734 | 769 | 509 | 0 | 6321 |
| AL | Alabama | 0 | 0 | 3618 | 941 | 624 | 5183 |
| ND | North Dakota | 5056 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5056 |
| WV | West Virginia | 587 | 0 | 1327 | 0 | 0 | 1914 |
| PA | Pennsylvania | 0 | 711 | 0 | 790 | 0 | 1501 |
| TN | Tennessee | 1080 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1080 |
| MA | Massachusetts | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 964 | 964 |
| NY | New York | 0 | 658 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 658 |
| CT | Connecticut | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| DE | Delaware | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IL | Illinois | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IN | Indiana | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| IA | Iowa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| ME | Maine | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| MI | Michigan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| NH | New Hampshire | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| OH | Ohio | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| RI | Rhode Island | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| VT | Vermont | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| WI | Wisconsin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
For our table, we wanted to see how many acres were burned in every state, so it is sorted by the total amount of acres burned. To do this, we had to get all the wildfire data and the corresponding state within the timeline of 2017 to 2021. This table is included because we wanted to see which states consistently have wildfires, and which states do not. States on the western half of the United States seemed to fit this condition, while states on the eastern half had sporadic wildfires if at all. This allows us to determine how we should be comparing AQI. For states with consistently high amount of wildfires, it’ll be possible to compare AQI in fire seasons versus non fire seasons, as well as between years based on acres burned. For states with very few wildfires, it may be easier to just compare the AQI of years that did have wildfires with years that didn’t.
In order to see which states have had the most acres burned by wildfires, we decided to make a choropleth that maps each state with the total acres burned by wildfires from 2017 to 2021. This chart is color encoded by acres burned. White represents 0 acres burned while dark red represents 8 million acres, which is fitting since red is associated with fire. States can be hovered for detailed information such as state name and the totals for every year. As shown, California has the most acres burned by far, and generally the west coast seems to be more prone to wildfire burnage, including Alaska.
In order to see if there is a relationship between wildfires and AQI, we decided to make a scatter plot that graphs total burned acres with average AQI in 2021 for all states. A scatterplot was used since trends between two variables can be spotted. If there is a correlation, there should be some sort of line that shows up. Since not all states had wildfires in 2021, only the ones that had are graphed. Hovering over a point shows the state and the specific numbers. As shown, while there are strong cases like California with the worst AQI and most acres burned, most of the remaining states are fairly inconclusive.
In order to see the AQI in Washington, we decided to make a line chart of the AQI each day in 2021. The use of this chart helps us see the pattern of AQI throughout the year in Washingtonand we can see that there was a large spike around the time of August and September when wildfireseason is the worst. Over the summer, there is drier heat, less rain, and more factors that contibuteto high levels of air quality. However, we can see that air quality remains consistent throughtout the rest of the year with no significantly noticable spikes.